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King of the gods, lord of the sky and thunder.
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Explore the divine family from Gaia and Uranus through the Titans to Olympus. Greek genealogies provide a framework, while Roman gods retain distinctive cults, histories and civic roles.
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Index of divinities
52 entries
King of the gods, lord of the sky and thunder.
The sky and thunder. In the Odyssey, Odysseus warns the Cyclops that Zeus avenges suppliants and strangers (9.270–271). In the Roman state, the consuls swore their oath of office in Jupiter's name.Queen of the gods and wife of Zeus; in Rome, one of the three gods of the Capitoline temple.
Marriage and queenship in the Greek poems; in Rome, Juno Moneta, whose name is the source of the words 'money' and 'mint' in English and the Romance languages.God of the sea and earthquakes, brother of Zeus.
The sea and earthquakes (Hesiod calls him the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker, Theogony 456–457), and horses: Virgil says the war-horse first sprang from the earth at the stroke of his trident (Georgics 1.12–14).God of the underworld and ruler of the dead; Plato's name Pluto links him to wealth.
The underworld and the dead (Iliad 15.187–193). Plato's Cratylus says he was called Pluto as the giver of wealth, because wealth comes up from the earth (403a). Modern reference works say that Dis Pater, the 'Rich Patriarch', was originally associated with fertile land and mineral wealth.Goddess of wisdom, strategy and crafts, born from the head of Zeus.
Wisdom, strategy and war, and crafts. Ovid lists the trades under Minerva's care: spinning, wool working, medicine, teaching, painting, sculpture and poetry (Fasti 3.815–834).God of war; in Rome also a guardian of the people, of boundaries and of agriculture.
War and bloodshed (Ares). In Rome, war together with the protection of the people, of boundaries and of agriculture (Mars).Goddess of love and beauty; in Rome also the ancestor of the Julian family.
Love and desire. In Hesiod, her honour among gods and men includes the whispering of maidens, smiles, deceits, sweet delight, love and graciousness (Theogony 203–206).God of music and prophecy, archery, plague and healing.
Music and the lyre, prophecy and oracles, archery, plague and healing. The maxims 'Know thyself' and 'Nothing in excess' were dedicated to him at Delphi (Pausanias 10.24.1).Virgin goddess of the hunt, sister of Apollo.
Hunting and wild nature.God of fire and the smith's craft.
Fire and the working of metal; in Virgil, the smith whose forge is on an island between Sicily and Lipari, with the fires of Aetna beneath it (Aeneid 8.416–422).Messenger of the gods, son of Zeus and Maia.
Messenger of the gods and guide of travellers; in the Odyssey he leads the spirits of the dead (24.1–14). In Rome, Mercury is linked with merchants: on 15 May merchants sprinkled themselves, their ships and their goods with water from the well at the Porta Capena (modern sources, citing Ovid, Fasti 5.670).Goddess of the hearth and, in Rome, of the sacred fire tended by the Vestal Virgins.
The hearth. In the Homeric Hymn to Hestia, mortals hold no banquet without pouring wine to Hestia first and last (29.5–6).Goddess of grain and the harvest, mother of Persephone.
Grain and agriculture; Ovid calls Ceres the first to break the earth with the plough, to make grain grow and to give laws (Metamorphoses 5.341–345).God of wine and ecstasy, son of Zeus and Semele.
Wine and the vine. In Homeric Hymn 7 a vine spreads along the sail and ivy twines about the mast.Daughter of Demeter, taken to the underworld by Hades and made its queen.
Queen of the underworld. In the Odyssey, Circe tells Odysseus that he must go to the house of Hades and dread Persephone (10.490–491).Titan king of the generation before Zeus, who in Roman tradition ruled Latium in a golden age.
In Greek sources, kingship over the gods before Zeus. In Roman tradition, Saturn is the ruler of an early age of plenty in Latium and the god of the Saturnalia.Titan mother of Zeus and his siblings; matched in Rome with the goddess of plenty, Ops.
In Greek myth, mother of the Olympian gods and rescuer of Zeus. In Rome, Ops is a goddess of plenty ('Ops' means 'wealth' or 'abundance' in Latin) and of the harvest.The sky personified; in Hesiod, the first ruler of the gods.
The sky and heavens.The Earth personified; in Hesiod, one of the first beings and the mother of the Titans.
The Earth. In Aeschylus, the Delphic priestess calls Earth the first prophet of the oracle at Delphi (Eumenides 1–8).Roman pair of gods linked with Ceres in a temple on the Aventine, and with the free toga given to boys.
Liber: the festival of the free toga (Ovid, Fasti 3.771–772).God of love and desire; in Roman poetry, the winged son of Venus.
Love and desire. Hesiod says Eros unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of gods and men (Theogony 120–122).Goddess of victory, a child of Styx in Hesiod and worshipped in Rome at the altar in the Senate house.
Victory.Goddess of strife; in Homer, the sister and companion of Ares.
Strife and conflict. Hesiod distinguishes two Strifes in Works and Days (11–26).Goddess of fortune and chance.
Fortune and chance. Pindar says that by her favour ships are steered on the sea, and battles and assemblies on land (Olympian 12).Two-headed Roman god of beginnings, the year and the temple doors that were open in war and shut in peace.
Beginnings, including the start of the year; Ovid calls him the origin of the year (Fasti 1.65).God of sleep, brother of Death.
Sleep and dreams.Death personified, a son of Night and brother of Sleep.
Death. Hesiod says Sleep is kind to men, but Death has a heart of iron and a spirit pitiless as bronze, and is hateful even to the deathless gods (Theogony 762–766).The dawn personified, sister of the Sun and Moon.
The dawn. Homer's regular line speaks of 'rosy-fingered Dawn' (Iliad 1.477).The sun personified, child of Hyperion and Theia; in Rome, Sol.
The sun. In the Iliad, Agamemnon calls on Zeus and 'the Sun, who sees and gives ear to all things' to witness the oath (3.276–279).The moon personified, sister of Helios and Eos; in Rome, Luna.
The moon. The Homeric Hymn to Selene describes her as the long-winged Moon, from whose immortal head a radiance shines from heaven.Arcadian god of shepherds and wild places, son of Hermes; matched in Rome with Faunus.
Shepherds and wild places. In the Homeric Hymn to Pan, he wanders through wooded glades and is a lover of merry noise (19).Greek hero, son of Zeus and Alcmene, who became a god; in Rome, Hercules.
Heroic strength and endurance.God of healing, son of Apollo.
Healing and medicine.The Great Mother of Anatolia, brought to Rome in the war with Hannibal.
The Great Mother; in Rome, a goddess received during the Second Punic War.Mother of Apollo and Artemis.
Motherhood of Apollo and Artemis. Hesiod calls Leto 'always mild, kind to men and to the deathless gods'.Night personified, one of the first beings in Hesiod.
Night.The three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, who give mortals their share of good and evil.
Destiny: Hesiod says they give mortal men at their birth both evil and good to have (Theogony 217–220, 904–906).The Erinyes, goddesses of vengeance; in Rome, the Furies.
Vengeance, above all in the Eumenides, where they pursue Orestes for the murder of his mother.The nine Muses, daughters of Zeus and Memory; in Rome, matched with the Camenae.
Song and poetry. The Homeric Hymn to the Muses and Apollo says it is through the Muses and Apollo that there are singers and lyre players on earth.Titan who stole fire for humankind and was punished by Zeus.
In Hesiod and Aeschylus, the stealer of fire.Titan who holds up the sky at the edge of the earth.
Holding up the sky.The north wind, son of Astraeus and Eos.
The north wind.The west wind, son of Astraeus and Eos.
The west wind. In the Odyssey, Proteus says the Elysian plain is cooled by the blasts of the West Wind sent up from Ocean (4.566–568).Keeper of the winds who helps Odysseus in the Odyssey.
The winds.Sea goddess, wife of Poseidon and mother of Triton; in Rome matched with Salacia.
The sea; modern reference works describe Salacia as the Roman goddess of salt water.Sea-god, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, who blows a shell trumpet.
The sea and its waves. In Ovid he blows a twisted shell to call the waters back after the great flood.Roman goddess of flowers; in Ovid, the nymph Chloris carried off by Zephyrus.
Flowers. Modern reference works give Chloris as the Greek equivalent of Flora, with the Floralia as her festival.Roman goddess of orchard fruit, in Ovid the lover of Vertumnus.
Fruit trees and orchards. In Ovid, Pomona devotes herself to tending trees and fruit (Metamorphoses 14.623ff).Roman god of boundary markers, whose shrine would not move for Jupiter.
Boundary stones and land boundaries.Goddess of war; Enyo in Homer and Bellona in Rome.
War. In the Iliad, Enyo is 'the waster of cities' (5.333).Roman god, identified with the deified Romulus.
In Ovid, the name Quirinus was held by Romulus before, with several explanations of the name (Fasti 2.475–480).God of weddings and the wedding song.
Weddings and the wedding song. Catullus 61 is a wedding hymn that repeatedly calls on Hymenaeus.